To me the rotoscoping was completely overdone and looks terrible. I like this movie but I think the battle scene could have been truly epic had they been fully animated. The monster design is great and the regular animation sequences look amazing. Not sure why they went with the roto look, I mean it takes almost as much time as regular animation (without today's digital effects that is). What do you guys think?
shareHuge battle scenes would have take a lot more time and money to create without rotoscoping. So Bakshi reinvented the technic. Sure it would have been more perfect without rotoscoping but alas, Bakshi was no millionaire that time ;).
shareIf you have access to the dvd, watch the interview with Ralph Bakshi, he explains why he chose rotoscoping.
The short answer is, it was the only way he could afford to finish the film. Personally, I like the way Bakshi used rotoscoping in "Wizards".
Rotoscoping can look good if it's done right (A Scanner Darkly) but this movie's--and Bakshi's LotR's--just look bad.
"This lint is so Scottish." --Xander Harris
I feel it gave the movie an interesting look, a style that I absolutely *loved*.
In fact, I'm a bit disappointed to learn that Bakshi only used it due to lack of funding. I honestly don't think I would have fallen in love with this movie if it had all been animated traditionally.
I have a lot of criticisms of this film, but the rotoscoping is not among them.
shareIn fairness to Bakshi, there's 35 years difference in technology between "A Scanner Darkly" and Wizards/LotR. That's a lot in technology years. :)
But these are subjective choices and will never be decided on the internet without a lot of childish name calling. ;)
Lightning-Rose,
"Subjective?" That word is way too mature for these forums! "35 years?" Do not use these "facts" around these parts!
We can settle this matter without name-calling, you dirty gypsy!
So, rotoscoping done 30+ years later on computers is done "right"?
The look of this film is amazing.
It's been a while since I've seen the DVD extras, but IIRC, the rotoscoping *was* done with computers. Apparently it was a new technique, so IBM gave Bakshi a good price to help promote their service.
shareI think it adds a touch of mystery and menace.
share
What you see is not necessarily what you get,
Not trying is dying, keep trying unto death....
It looks awful.
The rotoscoped soldiers ride normal horses while the animated ones ride those fat two-legged lizard things.
The rotoscoped soldiers have human proportions, whereas the animated ones are misshapen or fantastical. Worse, they have little horns drawn on in a sad attempt to make them fit! It looks silly!
It’s too obvious that they used WWII documentary footage and other films for their source. Whenever I saw it I was immediately thrown out of the narrative because it was so easy to recognize. I think I saw some footage from the movie Zulu! in there. At least the WWII footage made some sense given the Nazi connection the villian has, but why Zulus?
If there was some sort of seperation, like if the only things rotoscoped were some sort of special creature, like the things Blackwolf raised from hell (the souls of long-departed Nazis?), I think it would work better, but I didn't get that feeling. Avatar or the narrator could have mentioned something about them, for instance.
Not having enough money is really rough for an animated picture, but it still looks terrible.
They kind of did say something like that... that BlackWolf summoned demons from Hell or something. I assumed they were Nazis/soldiers/warriors from across history, summoned by Blackwolf to do his bidding. Their horns represented their demonic nature...
And personally.... I LOVED the rotoscoping. It added to the trippy, psychadelic feel of the film, in addition to the music & overall liberal hippie message of the film.
Then again... I was flying like a kite when I caught this on TCM the other night. I was TRIPPING BALLS & loved every minute of it. Bakshi is a GOD.
I liked the rotoscoping except for the first few frames of Blackwolf's army. When we first see the army, it's completely human as they march past the camera, but then a few seconds later they've have wings and horns, and look like a mutant, demon army.
shareThey mention Blackwolf summoned things from hell, but if the rotoscoped figures were meant to represent them, and only them, distinct from the earthly mutants, then they didn't make that clear.
share "Wizards" is very funny to me in more ways than one. I wanted to like and keep the movie for years to come and think of Ralph Bakshi as a funny guy from Brooklyn; a Mel Brooks type who pokes fun at Nazis, like in "The Producers." He did rotoscope the battle scenes, and I wanted to think of it despite the cost cuts as unintentional humor. But by comparing this to my much better Pixar DVD collection, and of course, there is no comparing, I now think of the rotoscoping scenes are jarring, headache-inducing, and the end result looks more like junk than beautiful animation, which I find in today's Pixar movies or even Disney movies like my personal favorite "101 Dalmations."
Also, for a PG-rated movie, there is too much violence and sexual innuendo. I'm no prude, but this movie really should have been rated R. I mean, look at Elinore the revealing fairy goddess. Do you want your daughter to use her as a role model? Then there are prostitutes around. I just couldn't take it anymore, got tired of being a slave to owning this movie, and trashed it. I got it at a bargain price years ago.
I had to fast forward through the rotoscoping because it made me feel a little ill and it went on and on and on and on...
Film definitely needs editing, and those rotoscoping aspects had a real lazy, cheap feel about it. I do understand budget constraints, but that method just doesn't work. One couldn't help notice how the people on the four legged horses didn't match the creatures on the two legged creatures.
I couldn't help but see all the Lord of the Rings influence there. Even Golem was remade for this film. Possibly his first animated appearance?
I just read a new interview with Bakshi, and he talks about purposely moving away from the over-polished Disney and Warner cartoons. His philosophy, beyond just not having enough money to finish the film, was to incorporate other non-traditional techniques... combining elements of collage, etc.
Personally, I always thought it added a very heightened emotional element to his films. The films of tanks, for example, drove that point home: that war is evil, etc.